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(No Moda1.)' 2 Sheets-Sheet 1.

R. 'NEALE.

APPARATUS FOR PURIFYING VITIATED AIR. No. 250,568. Patented De0.'6,1881.

2 Sheets-Sheet 2.

R. NEALE.

APPARATUS FOR PURIFYING VITIATED AIR.

(N 0 Model.)

Patented Dec. 6-

N4 PETERS. mwunw m ner. Washingtan. u. c

UNITED STATES FFICE.

PATENT RICHARD NEALE, OF SOUTH HAMPSTEAD, COUNTY OF MIDDLESEX,

ENGLAND.-

APPARATUS FOR PURIFYING VlTlATED AlR.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent N 0. 250,568, datedDecember 6, 1881. Application filed September 16, 1880, (No model.)Patented in England July 15, 1880, and August 3, 1880.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, RICHARD NEALE, of SouthHam pstead, in the county of Middlesex, England, have invented new anduseful ImprovementsintheApplicationandUseofOhemicals for PurifyingVitiated Air, and in Apparatus Theretor, (for which I have obtainedprovisional protection in Great Britain, dated respectively July 15,1880, No. 2,914, and August 3, 1880, No. 3,710,) of which the followingis a specification.

My invention relates to improvements in the application and use ofchemicals for purifying the air in railway or other tunnels, hospitals,churches, factories, breweries, theaters, mines, ships,caissons,-diving-bells, and other places where it is loaded with sulphurfumes, (carbonic oxide, by converting it into carbonic acid,) noxiousvapors, or other impurities.

The essential feature of my invention is to cause a very largeproportion of any existing volume of vitiated air to pass or be forcedover and be saturated with the chemical agent employed, thereby more orless destroying or removing the impurities with which the air is loaded.

It consists in apparatus adapted in form and contrivance to the natureand requirements of the place where the air is to be purified, and bywhich the air is caused to pass in thin sheets or currents betweenhorizontal wet chemical surfaces, and is constantly kept in contact withthe chemical agent employed, said agent being either in a more or lesssolid form, or in the fluid form, as found most suitable.

Myinvention may be operated by moving it through the air, or by causingthe air to flow through it, the effect upon the vitiated air being thesame in either case.

In order that my invention may be well understood I shall now proceedmore particularly to describe the same, reference being made to theaccompanying drawings, like letters of reference indicatingcorresponding parts in the respective figures.

Figure 1 is a longitudinal section of one form of myinvention forpurifying the air inrailwaytunnels and other places, and Fig. 2 an endview thereof.

A represents a special purifying carriage or chamber attached (in thecase of railway-tunoutward, so as to cover as large a portion of 5 thesectional area of the tunnel as practicable. Each end is also formed onits upper edge with a large win g, chute, or baffle-plate, b, projectingupward to within as short a distance of the crown of the tunnel aspossible, for the purpose hereinafter described. In the sides and bottomof the carriage or chamberA are left any desirable number of rectangularor other openings, B, opposite and dividing which longitudinally areprojecting wings a, similar to a, arranged in pairs, so as to face eachway, ac cording to the direction in which the train is running. Theseveral wings a a, combined with the forward open end of the carriage orchamber A and the openings B, act in such a manner that as the train ispassing through the tunnel the vitiated air will be caught by them andcaused to enter and circulate through the body of the carriage orchamber A, the half-space of each opening B not ad'- mitting the airbeing closed automatically by a centrally-hinged flap swinging eitherway. At the same time the steam and gases escaping from the chimney ofthe engine will be caught by the wing or battle-plate b and directedinto the body of the carriage, the gases and vitiated air passing, intheir transit through the latter, over a chemical substance hereinafterdescribed, which will absorb or change the impurities-such as sulphurfumes, carbonic-acid gas, sulphurous acid, sulphurcted hydrogen, orothers with which the air is loadedthe air thus acted upon passing outthrough the opposite or rear end of the carriage or chamber A into thetunnel in a comparatively pure state; or, if desired, the several win gsa a b and openings B may be dispensed with, the vitiated air in thatcase entering the carriage or chamber A at its open end without theiraid.

0 G are trays or cases arranged one above the other at any desiredinclination, and each composed of some non-corrosive animal, vegetable,or mineral material, such as charcoal,

glass, earthenware, or any other, or of some porous material, such ascanvas, on which is placed the chemical substance employed, the latterbeing protected or not with non corrosive or porous covers. These traysor cases 0 O slide in grooves formed in or attached to the sides andmiddle partition of the carriage or chamber A; or they may be placed inmovable rack-fram es, and each series thereof break joint, as it were,with the succeeding series, so that the air and gases may be split up intraversing the carriage or chamber, and thereby caused to more perfectlyimpinge against the chemical substance, which is kept moist with watercontained in an overhead tank, D, the Water dripping or running throughnipple or other pipes, c 0, onto the uppermost trays or cases, 0 0,through which it permeates, onto the nextlower trays or cases, and so onthrough the entire series until the chemical substance contained therebyis completely moistened; or the tank D may be dispensed with and thechemical substance moistened by steam or by a hose at the variousstations on the line, as found most economical and convenient; or, inlieu of applying the chemical in amore orless solid state, as described,it may be used in a fluid form, as shown in Figs. 3 and 4, Sheet 1,where the-overhead tank D contains the chemical solution, which drips orruns through the nipple or other pipes, 07, onto and through a series ofporous sheets, E, of canvas or other material, stretched tightly acrossthe carriage or chamber A, to the sides of which they are battened orotherwise secured 5 or they may be carried by movable rack-frames; or,in lieu of the sheets E, the carriage or chamber A may be packed withany non corrosive material combined with the chemical substance orsolution or the trays or cases 0 C, before described, may be usedmoistened with the chemical solution, omitting therefrom the chemicalsubstance in the solid form. In either case the insides and outsides ofthe carriage or chamber A or A may be lined with the noncorrosive orporous material, and kept wet with the solution, if found desirable. ThesheetsE or non corrosive material being thoroughly saturated with thechemical solution, the latter eventually finds its way into a lowertank, F, whence it is forced back to the overhead tank D by the pump G,worked by an eccentric from one of the running-axles of the carriage orchamber A, as shown, or otherwise. The vitiated air, entering andtraversing the carriage or chamber A, impinges against the saturatedsheets E or non-corrosive material, as the case may be, (and othersurfaees,ifany,) and the chemical solution absorbs or changes thenoxious gases it contains, the air, more or less purified, passing outof the carriage or chamber A into the tunnel, as in Figs. 1 and 2; or,in lieu of admitting the chemical solution to the sheets E by the pipesd, a number of thick strands of worsted or other suitable material maybe passed from the overhead tank D through the series'of sheets E (andalong the other surfaces, if any) to the lower tank, F, the chemicalsolution traveling along these strands by capillary attraction, andsaturating in its progress the sheets E.

It is to be understood that I do not confine myself to the use orparticular arrangement of the trays or cases (J 0, Figs. 1 and 2, Sheet1, or porous sheets E, Figs. 3 and 4, as it is evident that any surfacecapable of containing the chemical substance in a solid state, or ofbeing saturated and transmitting it in a fluid form, may be used, suchsurface or surfaces being constructed of any suitable material andarranged vertically, inclined, or otherwise.

When either ot'the above-described arran gements for purifying vitiatedair in railway-tunnels is used for purifying purposesin any otherplaces, the several carriages or chambers may be fixed in any convenientposition, the runnin g-wheels and other travelin gappendages beingdispensed with and the vitiated air forced through the carriage orchamber or into contact with the various disks by mechanical means, suchas by centrifugal fans or blowing-engines driven by steam, hydraulic,wind, clock-work, hand, or other motive power.

Figs. 5 and 6 illustrate another form or modification of my inventionfor purifying the air in railway-tunnels, to be used or not incombination with the special carriages or chain bers before described.It consists of a trough, F, mounted in front of the engine andcontaining the chemical solution, in which are imm'ersed a series ofsheets, trays, ,or cases, U, made of some non-corrosive or porousmaterial, connected with each other and arranged to run upon verticalrods,,on the principle of a Venetian window-blind, so that when pulledup out of the trough F, in which/they have become saturated with thechemical solution, they spread out, as seen in Fig. 6, and form chemicalscreens or surfaces, against which the vitiated air impinges, and ispurified as the train passes through the tunnel. As soon as the chemicalsolution has evaporated from the sheets U, or on the train passing outinto the open air, they are lowered into the trough IIO F, to beresaturated and pulled up again on entering a tunnel.

For use in apartments of houses and other confined spaces the sets oftrays U, Figs. 5 and 6, may be suspended from above, so as to swinglikea punka or fan, and in that case the trays may be resupplied withchemical solution, be ing from time to time lowered into the trough F atthe bottom of the suspendingrods, or by solution supplied from a troughabove said trays by capillary action, through cords or fibrous materialhanging over the edge of said upper trough, or by some other form ofdrip. The surplus solution which finally reaches the lower trough may bereturned to the upper trough by means of bulb-pump and flexible tubeattached to the apparatus.

I claim- 1. The combination of the horizontal trays, or theirequivalents, adapted to hold or con tain chemical substances moistenedby water, with the carriage or chamber A, provided with wings a a I),and side openings, B, substantially as and for the purpose described andshown.

2. The combination of the horizontal trays,

or their equivalents, adapted to hold or con- 4. The horizontal sheets,trays, or cases U, arranged to move upon vertical rods, so as to operatein the manner of a Venetian blind, combined with a trough, F, adapted tocontain chemical solution, into which all of said slats may be immersed,substantially as and for the purpose described.

RIOHD. NEALE.

Witnesses:

J osEPH FRASER,

41 Bolton Road, N. W., EDWARD E. FERRELL.

